"Daybreak in Urn." (New Gallery and Tivoli.) THIS short documentary
about the building of a maternity home in a Nigerian village will probably do more than all the other activities of "Colonial Month" put together to give people in this country a picture of what life in a colony is like. The villagers decide they want a maternity home, and the Government is prepared to help them if they will do the bulk of the work themselves. How self- help of this sort works has been explained recently in two articles in the Spectator, the first by Mr. Terry Bishop, who directed the film, and the second by Mr. E. R. Chadwick, the District Officer who was responsible for getting the work organised and who himself plays a leading part in the film. To the village, a maternity home becomes the symbol of progress, and to the jaundiced generation of post-war Europe it is no bad thing to be reminded of what " progress " still symbolises to less sophisticated communities: health, knowledge and freedom from the fear of unknown powers which used to lurk in the almost overpowering jungle at their doorstep. The friendliness and enthusiasm of the villagers, to whom acting comes as naturally as pioneering, makes the film itself something of a celebration. Their vitality is infectious and rises to a crescendo of dancing on the day when the home is opened beside which all western jitterbugs are
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